We have always been big fans of raspberries. Before we moved to the farm we would buy several flats each year and turn them into jam and syrup. They are one of our favorite things to put on ice cream in the summer. When we started talking about moving to a farm, Raspberries were one of the first things we put into the plan. Despite their early incorporation into our plan it has taken a few years for us to get to the point where we could consider planting them.
We needed to choose a raspberry variety, where the best place to plant them would be (not as easy as it sounds), how many we wanted, and where we would source the roots from.
We decided on Tulameen as our raspberry variety. They are firm, a good size, and pack lots of flavour. The only real drawback to Tulameen is that everyone says they are harder to grow because they are susceptible to root rot. This made the planting location especially important. We ultimately decided on a south-facing slope that has a lighter soil than most other parts of the farm.
With those decisions made we could now focus on laying out the plot and determining how many plants we wanted. We measured the field and determined we could comfortably get four 100-foot rows into the field and that would work out to a bit more than 250 plants. Last fall I called around and finally found a wholesale nursery on the lower mainland that could supply certified disease-free bare-root Tulameen Raspberries for delivery at the end of February.
With the raspberries ordered that lit a fire under us to start getting the plot ready for planting. In mid February we started preparing the rows by laying down some heavy virgin kraft paper as a compostable weed barrier and piling a mix of sand and compost about 12 inches deep on the paper.
About the time we were finishing the field preparation, we received our shipment of Raspberry roots. They were shipped in cardboard boxes with two bundles of 25 roots each nicely wrapped in plastic bags. There was plenty of wet humus and rotted wood chips in the bottom of the bags to keep the root from drying out.
We started planting the roots in the first week of March. We buried the roots in the sand and compost mix, being careful not to puncture the weed barrier below. We finished just as the sun was setting.
The preparation was highly unconventional and a bit of an experiment, but by May we had added some drip line irrigation on an automatic timer and things were looking really good. Almost all of the Raspberry roots were sending up new primocane shoots.
By the beginning of July, the roots are well established and the canes are growing fast. There are even a few berries. We pruned most of the flowers off before they could get very far in order to direct all the plant's energy into new cane production, but we have left some so that we can taste our new addition to the farm.
Aside from picking some of the berries we let develop, we just need to install the trellis. We are very excited to see what next year has in store when the plants produce their first crop.
— VVF